Engineering Change Order

Modified by Jason Howie on Feb 25, 2015
Contents
Other Related Resources
Differences between (Dialog)
Project Options - Comparator tab (Dialog)
Report Preview (Dialog)

Parent page: WorkspaceManager Dialogs

The Engineering Change Order dialog.

Summary

This dialog presents the currently generated Engineering Change Order (ECO). An ECO simply lists all modifications required to implement changes to one or more design documents, in order to bring those documents into a state of synchronization.

Perhaps the most important and most often encountered situation for the use of ECOs is when synchronizing the source documents of the captured design and the target PCB implementation of that design. Changes on either side will always need to be pushed to the other side in order to maintain synchronicity - which is where the ECO comes into play.

Access

ECOs are used to effect design updates in a variety of situations. The ways in which the dialog can be accessed include the following:

  • Clicking the Create Engineering Change Order button, in the Differences between dialog.
  • Clicking the Accept Changes (Create ECO) button, in the Annotate dialog, when performing anotation on the source schematic documents.

The Schematic and PCB Editors also provide direct synchronization commands. These commands are direct in the sense that the update direction for any differences is fully one way or the other. The Differences between dialog will not appear. Instead, where differences are detected, the Engineering Change Order dialog will be presented directly – loaded with the modifications needed to push the design changes from the schematic to the PCB or vice-versa.

The following direct synchronization commands are available from within the target PCB document:

  • Home | Project | Project » Update Schematics - this command is used to update the parent project's source schematics with changes made to the PCB design.
  • Home | Project | Project » Import Changes From - this command is used to update the active PCB document with changes made to the source schematic documents of the parent project.

The following direct synchronization command is available from within a source schematic document:

  • Home | Project | Project » Update PCB Document - this command is used to update the indicated PCB document with changes made to the project's source schematic documents.

Options/Controls

The dialog is essentially divided into two main regions - Modifications and Status.

Modifications

This region of the dialog lists all modifications necessary to implement the changes required to bring about synchronization. Modifications are grouped by modification type - as listed, and enabled, on the ECO Generation tab of the Project Options dialog. The entry at this group level reflects the number of modifications of that type. Each specific modification in this region is listed in terms of the following:

  • Enable - this option determines whether or not the modification will be included when the ECO is executed. Click directly on the checkbox to toggle its state between enabled/included (checkbox checked), and disabled/excluded (checkbox unchecked).
  • Action - the specific action to be carried out. The types of actions are dependent on what type of ECO needs to be done, and can include Add, Remove, and Modify.
  • Affected Object - the object affected by the action.
  • Affected Document - the document upon which the action will be carried out.

By default, all modifications are enabled for inclusion when the ECO is executed. Enable/disable each modification entry as required, individually, or use the following commands available from the right-click menu, to change the enabled state of multiple modifications:

  • Enable All - use this command to enable all modifications.
  • Disable All - use this command to disable all modifications.
  • Enable Selected - use this command to enable all selected modifications.
  • Disable Selected - use this command to disable all selected modifications.
  • Enable all of same Kind - use this command to enable all modifications of the same modification type as the currently focused modification.
  • Disable all of same Kind - use this command to disable all modifications of the same modification type as the currently focused modification.

Multiple modifications can be selected in the list using standard multi-select techniques (Ctrl+click, Shift+click). In addition, the right-click menu provides an Invert Selection command, to quickly select all modifications not currently selected in the list, and deselect those that are.

Use the Expand All and Contract All commands on the right-click menu to quickly toggle the view of all modifications in the listing. Alternatively, expand/contract individual modification type groupings, using the / controls to the left of each entry.
If the Mode for a modification type has been set to Ignore Differences in the ECO Generation tab of the Project Options dialog, then any design update that results in the action being of this modification type, will not be transferred to the Engineering Change Order dialog.
The right-click menu also provides commands for cross-probing to target and reference objects - involved in a modification action - on the associated schematic and PCB documents.

Status

This region of the dialog presents the following status information for each enabled modification:

  • Check - this field shows the result of running a validation check on the modification. A green tick () means that the proposed change is supported and will be carried out upon execution of the ECO. A red cross () means that the proposed change is invalid and will not be carried out when the ECO is executed.
  • Done - this field shows the result of execution of the modification. A green tick () means that the valid modification executed successfully.
  • Message - if the modification fails the validation stage, an entry will appear in this field (and also in the Messages panel), giving an indication as to why it failed.
Close out of the dialog at any stage, in order to investigate why certain changes are failing and make any design changes as necessary.

Additional Controls

The following buttons are available at the bottom of the dialog:

  • Validate Changes - click this button to run a validation check on the modifications enabled for inclusion in the ECO. Validation results will appear in the Check column, in the Status region of the dialog.
It is important to validate the proposed modification actions before executing them. This tests the logic of your proposed changes.
  • Execute Changes - click this button to execute the ECO and effect the valid changes contained therein. Execution results will appear in the Done column, in the Status region of the dialog. Remember, only changes that pass the validation stage will be executed.
  • Report Changes - click this button to generate a report for the modificsations contained in the ECO. The report will be loaded into the Report Preview dialog. Use this dialog to browse the report, before ultimately exporting it to one of various supported formats, or printing it directly.
Bear in mind that the report will list all modification entries, irrespective of whether they validate and execute successfully.
  • Only Show Errors - enable this option to only show Engineering Change Order errors; Validated changes will not be displayed. Showing the list of errors only will enable you to quickly review and make necessary changes to your design, so that the resulting ECO validates completely, and therefore herald success when the ECO is executed.
Commands for validating changes, executing changes, and creating a report, are also available from the right-click menu.

 

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